INTRODUCTION Jesus has taught His disciples they must become eunuchs ( 19:12 ) and children ( 19:14 ) for the sake of His kingdom. Now, through His encounter with the rich young ruler, He tells them they must also be ready to renounce wealth for His sake. As always, though, Jesus promises surpassing rewards ( 19:29 ). THE TEXT “Now behold, one came and said to Him, ‘Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal... Read more
Jesus’ quotations from Genesis 1-2 in Matthew 19:4-5 resemble the pattern in a number of days of creation. On some days, God spoke and made, or made something by speaking. But there are occasions when God first made something and then spoke to it. He made the dry land appear, and then spoke and caused plants to come up on the ground and begin to produce fruit. God created the great monsters in the deep and every swarming thing in... Read more
Between Matthew 4 and 19, Jesus ministers in Galilee, never in Judea. As soon as He enters Judea again (19:1-2), He is attacked – just as He was when He was first in Judea, when wise men came looking for the king of the Jews. This is the first Sunday of the Epiphany season. Epiphany means “manifestation,” and it celebrates the manifestation of the Christ to the Gentiles, the first Gentile being the magi from the East. Jesus is being... Read more
If we follow the traditional interpretation in taking “eunuch” in Matthew 19 as a figure for someone who has renounced family and progeny and “manhood” for the sake of the kingdom, then we can surmise that Jesus intends to refer to Himself above all as the one who has become a eunuch for the kingdom. For He has put aside what the ancients would have taken as manhood – honor, retaliation, revenge, violence. Instead, he turns the other cheek, stands... Read more
In a 2005 article in JSNT, J. David Hester challenges the view that Jesus’ eunuch saying in Matthew 19:12 is an endorsement of celibacy. Part of his argument rests on an analysis of ancient conceptions of eunuchs, who were regularly feared because they confused gender distinctions. Eunuchs must be understood, he argues, against the background of ancient concepts of masculinity, in which male virtue is associated with power and dominance, expressed in violence and sexual mastery. A eunuch was not... Read more
The always-fascinating Spengler predicts the extinction of languages and peoples over the next two centuries: “Half of the world’s languages will disappear by the end of the 21st century, and up to 90% by the end of the 22nd. The majority of these are spoken by a few hundred people each in the New Guinea highlands, and the rest scattered around the pockets of humanity left behind by the global economy. A small army of ethnologists is trying to record... Read more
Between Matthew 4 and 19, there is no mention of Judea or the region “beyond the Jordan.” Once He hears of John’s arrest, Jesus withdraws to Galilee (4:12), and doesn’t come back until 19:1. As soon as He steps back into Judea, the Pharisees come to “test” Him. Apart from 16:1, this word hasn’t been used since chapter 4 either – and then it was used of Satan ( peirazo means “test” or “tempt”). The testing in 16:1 takes place... Read more
In a famous passage in de officiis (2.26-8), Cicero traces the collapse of the Roman “protectorate” into an oppressive conqueror. The passage is as interesting for his characterization of early Roman expansion as it is for his analysis of the collapse of earlier political standards. “Let me add, however, that as long as the empire of the Roman People maintained itself by acts of service, not of oppression, wars were waged in the interest of our allies or to safeguard... Read more
In a recent interview on his Mars Hill Audio magazine, Ken Myers interviews Craig Holdrege, co-author of Beyond Biotechnology . One of Holdrege’s key points is that scientists have moved well beyond the early idea that the gene is the “unmoved mover” that determines everything about an organism and now recognize that genes too have a history and are interdependent on other factors in the organism. Thus falls yet another form of Platonism, that enduring quest to find some point... Read more
INTRODUCTION After a long sojourn in Galilee , Jesus returns to Judea (cf. 4:12 ), and immediately the Pharisees put Him on trial (19:3) by posing a legal question. As they do later in Jerusalem , the Jewish leaders want to trap Jesus to accuse Him ( 22:15 -46). THE TEXT “Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan . And great... Read more
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